Monday, February 4, 2013

Fitness & Pregnancy: From a PREGNANT point of view this time :)

You may recall - based on readers' requests, we did a Fit Pregnancy post a few months ago (you can find that post here). That one was based on the research we had done, gathering information from several knowledgeable and reputable sources, BUT - it had no personal experience to go along with it.

Well now that we got a few months of personal experience under our belt, we figured we'd give y'all an updated version :)

Original post: "During the first trimester, staying active is important. It will help
alleviate some of the negative side-effects of pregnancy hormones you
might be experiencing (nausea, fatigue, etc.). But no one says you have
to keep up with your 6-day-a-week workouts seshs.....if you need to bump
it down a notch, DO SO! You're growing a baby, for goodness sake! :)"

Now: Um yeah, first trimester did not go as gloriously as that sounds above! Lindsay really (unnecessarily) freaked about exercising because her heart rate gets so high (doesn't take much for her to get in the 180's+) and she was so scared she'd lose the baby. This cut down on the first trimester workouts A LOT. And the need for 10-12 hours of sleep, plus naps, didn't leave much time in the day for workouts, either.

Original post: "Once you get into the second and third trimesters, you might have slowed
down (especially if you were super active girl before getting
pregnant), but don't stop completely! Remaining active isn't just good
for you, it's good for that little critter in your belly too! Avoid
high-risk/contact exercise, working out in extreme temperatures, and
also avoid exercises that have you on your back (like Pilates), because
when lying on your back, your expanding uterus presses against your
spinal cord, which in turn limits blood flow."

Now: Once she made it to the second trimester, and had a few doctor's visits under her belt, she felt more comfortable working out regularly. One set of pregnancy DVDs was tried, but Lindsay has veered back to TurboFire, just doing the "low impact modifications". Energy seems to be coming back, which makes working out 4-5 times a week pretty darn doable!

Maintaining fitness is important, and Lindsay hopes to continue strong throughout the rest of the 2nd trimester and into her 3rd. The fear and fatigue that plagued the first trimester are diminishing, so here's hoping!

Today's Lesson: Things don't always go as you have planned!

A little pic - does/did this happen to anyone else while pregnant? Working out (guessing it's all the blood flowing) makes the belly swell like CRAZY?!